By CORY NEALON

“The technology has practical applications that we’re only beginning to explore.”

Thenkurussi “Kesh” Kesavadas, director

Virtual Reality Laboratory

Worried that machines will someday control the human race? If
so, relax.

Researchers at UB and elsewhere are helping to advance
technology that allows people to control robots with their minds.
UB isn’t focused on world domination, but rather applying
these brain-computer interface (BCI) devices to manufacturing,
medicine and other fields.

“The technology has practical applications that
we’re only beginning to explore,” says Thenkurussi
“Kesh” Kesavadas, professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering and director of UB’s Virtual Reality Laboratory.
“For example, it could help paraplegic patients to control
assistive devices, or it could help factory workers perform
advanced manufacturing tasks.”

While it sounds like something from X-Men and other science
fiction stories, BCI technology has been available to the public
for a few years. Devices range from relatively inexpensive novelty
items to sophisticated instruments that sell for tens of thousands
of dollars.

Products vary but they generally include a helmet equipped with
many sensors. The sensors read electrical signals —
electroencephalograms — from brain activity and transmit them
wirelessly to a computer. The computer then sends signals to the
robot to control the robot’s movement.

Thus far, most research has involved more expensive BCI devices
that, unlike what’s described above, are inserted into the
brain. They have been used mostly to help disabled people.

UB research differs because it relies on a relatively
inexpensive, noninvasive instrument — it retails for $750
— that fits on the head like a hat and is outfitted with only
14 sensors.

Kesavadas recently demonstrated the technology with Pramod
Chembrammel, a doctoral student in his lab. Chembrammel, who
trained with the instrument for a few days, used the device to
control a robotic arm. He used the arm to insert a wood peg into a
hole and rotate the peg.

“It was incredible to see the robot respond to my
thoughts,” Chembrammel says. “On top of that, it
wasn’t even that difficult to learn how to use the
device.”

The video shows that a simple set of instructions can be
combined to execute more complex robotic actions, Kesavadas says.
Such robots could be used by factory workers to perform hands-free
assembly of products or carry out tasks like drilling or
welding.

The potential advantage, Kesavadas says, is that BCI-controlled
devices could reduce the tedium of repetitious tasks and improve
worker safety and productivity. The devices also can leverage
workers’ decision-making skills, such as identifying a faulty
part in an automated assembly line.

Kesavadas, a leader in developing virtual reality tools, plans to
continue studying BCI technology. The research could lead to the
first, extensive instructional guides for using BCI-controlled
devices.